UIL leader: Distance top priority

Tascosa High School parents who want to know what University Interscholastic League officials were thinking might be surprised by the answer from the league’s top officer.

“Travel is the No. 1 priority we place on every district assignment,” UIL Executive Director Charles Breithaupt said.

Travel is also No. 1 in the minds of many parents in the wake of UIL realignment, the process every two years that groups schools into five classes ranked by enrollment. Earlier this month, the league, which governs the largest high school enrollment in the country, announced a shift that sent Amarillo High School down from the top class, 5A, to 4A. Rival Tascosa remained in Class 5A, set in a district that stretches 313 miles south to San Angelo.

The closest 2-5A school to Tascosa is Lubbock Coronado, with the district schedule including travel to Abilene, San Angelo, Odessa and Midland.

A typical home-and-home schedule — used in the other 31 districts in Class 5A — would have a Tascosa athletic team traveling more than 4,000 miles to complete a district schedule. No public school in the state would travel farther for district competition.

Amarillo Independent School District has appealed the move, asking that Tascosa be dropped to Class 4A. League officials said appeals to move down in class never have succeeded.

Of 245 schools in the current Class 5A, Tascosa ranks No. 191.

“I tell you what,” Breithaupt said. “If I were in Tascosa’s shoes, I would appeal. You can’t get what you want if you don’t ask.”

Breithaupt figures to be asked plenty Wednesday, when he is scheduled to visit Amarillo to talk with school officials about Tascosa. Parents are invited to attend.

In the meantime, the director gave the Amarillo Globe-News an exclusive interview covering several subjects from the recent realignment to one of the hottest athletics topics across the state — the idea of forming a Class 6A for the next realignment.

On the priority of travel when meeting over realignment issues:

“When we are talking about travel, that’s a high priority for every single district we have.

“We start out west, or north, with the El Paso schools and where you guys are in Amarillo. We try to get a minimum of the six closest schools we can. And then you get both sides of that where, if we only give them six schools in a district, we can’t get anybody out here to play us. And who would volunteer to travel that far?

“We look at all kinds of options. But No. 1 is travel (in) every major decision we make on where you play in a specific district.”

On the Tascosa appeal:

“We agree the appeal process works for a reason. And we believe they are doing the right thing by appealing. Whether the committee agrees, that’s the committee’s decision. The UIL staff has nothing to do with that. ... I think the greater part in this is to look in the future. What does this hold for the future? A lot of people try to beat up the school board and administration ... That’s hindsight. I think we move forward and do the best we can and deal with the appeal Monday.”

On the time UIL officials spend on realignment:

“We already started talking about 2014-16 alignments even before this alignment was released. It’s on our mind all the time. We have to look at situations like (Tascosa). Is there some kind of modification that could be put in place so that we could consider if you drive a certain amount of miles? ... I certainly believe this (Tascosa situation) has raised the eyebrows of a lot of folks.”

On the deeper impacts of travel:

“It’s not just about the amount of money you spend on fuel. It’s the amount of time you spend on the road. The amount of time kids have to be on a bus. The amount of time one school has to travel when others don’t have to travel as far.

“Yes, I know Midland has to travel one time. (Midland) Lee has to travel once. The Odessa schools each travel once. We all know that. But every time Tascosa has to play a game, they have to travel. We have to put some kind of formula together. Nobody can tell us better than the people of Tascosa.”

On the chances of adding a Class 6A in the next realignment:

“I actually saw it happening last time. I tell you why I think it has more of a value now. We are already crowning six state champions in basketball and six in football, times two, when you count Six-Man.

“If we tweak some numbers I think we can do some good things in balancing our conferences again. That would be getting back to a reasonable amount of teams in our conferences. I say that because we have 250 teams in 4A and 245 in 5A. If we could look at reducing those we might not have the issues we have now in the current alignment.

“What we have been trying to do is stretch the middle instead of bringing from the top to the bottom. We would have to add more schools to the smaller conferences and reduce the numbers in the top conferences. I think we have enough schools to do that now. We were close last time to passing a 6A conference alignment. I think it has more merit now.”

On the number of schools that might compete in Class 6A:

“With the numbers of schools we have playing football and basketball, and that number is right at 1,200 football and more than that for basketball, I think you could say 200 per conference. It will matter what our school superintendents think about equity. How many schools is a valid state championship? Is it 50, 100, 200?”

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Well if it's about travel, and the AISD has said they don't mind if all 4 of their schools are in the same district, then why doesnt AISD partition the UIL to move AHS, PD, and Caprock up to 5A and form a district with Lubbock Coronado? No travel. Oh wait, it's really not all about travel then isn't it?

Distance is nothing to UIL. We moved to another district where the closest district game is 220 miles away while sitting next to a district where the farthest district game would be 120 miles away. They denied our appeal stating we had to be in that district for the district to make.

The UIL is lead by ex-coaches who only think of football and the other sports are tag a longs.
Note the is no educational component involved in their narrow thinking. Neanderthals are
in charge.
If the AISD board of trustees and the superintendent, they would withdraw from the UIL
and form a sensible organization in which the primary mission of a school system would be
on academics; of secondary importance would be competition in sports and in literary and
forensic subjects.
This move will inevitably come because of money problems state-wide.

Contrary to what Longdrycreek said, Charles was a long-time very successful basketball coach in East Texas. His predecessor was married to a girls' basketball coach. It is not all about football and not all about sports. As for the educational component, check his resume. And, the way the UIL is structured, NONE of the "Neandertals" have anything to do with the academic side of UIL save for Charles, and his educational resume is impeccable.

Wiz, the other Amarillo schools could have been moved up to 5A. All they had to do was ask. There are schools all over the state who move up. River Road is just one of many. AHS, PDHS, CHS could be in there with Tascosa and Lubbock Coronado.

Contrary to what Longdrycreek said, Charles was a long-time very successful basketball coach in East Texas. His predecessor was married to a girls' basketball coach. It is not all about football and not all about sports. As for the educational component, check his resume. And, the way the UIL is structured, NONE of the "Neandertals" have anything to do with the academic side of UIL save for Charles, and his educational resume is impeccable.

Wiz, the other Amarillo schools could have been moved up to 5A. All they had to do was ask. There are schools all over the state who move up. River Road is just one of many. AHS, PDHS, CHS could be in there with Tascosa and Lubbock Coronado.